Where did you ride OUTSIDE today (2021)

The club’s Rimes Cup TT was supposed to be last week but road works stopped it. They were removed today but the club only had permission for 2 laps (Stanford Rd, Bainton, then Ufford). The first lap went ok’ish after a terrible clip in. On the 2nd lap things just didn’t feel right. Pumping my tyres up to 100psi on this course wasn’t a good idea. It had shook the TT pole bolt loose :joy:



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I rode in our local weekday XC race series yesterday.

Basically, a time trial on the way up, and on the way down.

I’m not so good on the way up, but managed to snag an almost-top 20 on a long descent section.

Apparently, there were 6 moose spotted at various points, but I didn’t see any as I was too busy either suffering or trying not to crash.

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Did a nice 60 mile ride, trying to hit all the hills in my area (there are few and far between).
The wind was pretty strong and came from the right direction and I had a strong lead out man, so I went after the most coveted KOM in my area and placed 3rd of over 2K, which I am pretty happy with.
Especially because the number 1 is German U23 TT Champion and number 2 is a Former World Champion rower.
Wondering what a skinsuit might have done :thinking:.


Also had to end the activity after the segment to check strava :joy:.


New 8 minute power pb @5.6Wkg. :smirk:

A quick revision has shown that I placed even Better on a longer segment, before the German TT Champ.

I’ll tell myself it wasn’t for the fact that I had better conditions :joy:

And then there is Andrew Feather, who averaged 62 Watts more, for 35 seconds longer, while being 4kg lighter.

Geez man, I am humbled.

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Charlotte NC.

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an honest coffee ride recorded on Apple Watch:

^^^ nothing to see except AW recording 63 feet of ‘climbing’ which turned into:

  • 62 feet on TrainingPeaks
  • 27 feet on Strava
  • 1,941 feet on TrainerRoad :rofl:

hrTSS of 49 on TP and 46 on TR, so I’m happy to see TR’s hrTSS estimation working just fine.

11 bikes at the coffee stop: 2 families of 4, one dude, and our two bikes.

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A short ride down to Oundle again for me this morning to meet some friends for a coffee.

It was looking like a hot one :sun_with_face:

As they headed to a beer garden, I headed to a TT just south of Sleaford (Silk Willoughby to Doddington and back, 25miles)

I got stopped at two roundabouts (actually the same one on the way out and way back) and the race was in 30deg heat, so I’m quite pleased with the provisional 1min 41s PB on the C25/22 at Silk Willoughby (1h2m27s) 4 years after I last rode the course.



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Essex in the early morning (ish)

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Third tractor down is a Fordson Major - I basically learnt to drive on one of those!

Yesterday headed off early to try and beat the heat for a ride in the Yorkshire Dales. Except I didn’t (beat the heat). The idea was just a steady Z2 ride but take it as easy as possible on the big climbs. Up Wharfedale and then over Fleet Moss, highest road in the area, and down to Hawes for a café stop. Up Widdale and over to Ribblehead then down to Settle for another café stop.

Got to within about 20km of home and began cramping, so there were quite a few temporary stops to let this pass. Took an age to do the last climb to get home. Was completely knackered by the time I got back. I really don’t do heat, it was 28C during the afternoon.

https://www.strava.com/activities/5641642258

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100 miles yesterday on Colorado’s finest gravel. This was a reasonably chill ride where I got to enjoy the views, including some new stretches of road I hadn’t ridden before.

Forecast said 15% chance of rain. We got caught in the 15% in a short heavy thunderstorm. I had a freshly waxed chain on the bike. I can confidently say that fresh wax and wet grit do not mix. After the rain stopped and things dried up, my drivetrain sounded horrific. These are challenging conditions for any lube, but this was really bad- worse than I’ve experienced before.

I stopped, cleaned it, and applied some Squirt. The good news is this process is quick, only a minute or so (I had a small brush I used to brush the chain, cassette and rings to remove dried grit), and helped significantly.

I guess it better not rain during SBT GRVL!!

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10 mile shake down ride on the upgraded old aluminati road bike. Got 5 short hill repeats in. Man, Ultegra 11 speed shifts like a dream, even on my big pie-plate rear cassette.

The ride proved I need a shorter stem. Bike shop was sold out of 90mm stems, so Amazon to the rescue. Zipp stem en route…

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Yesterday was a 3:30a wake-up to get the son up and off to the airport for a 7a flight for 2wk trip to Africa on a medical internship for high school students, home, wait until he lands in Amsterdam and is on his next leg, then out the door on the gravel bike for a quickie.


After the days of rain – weeks really if you ignore the pauses here and there – causing flooding and at the very least significantly high water in rivers and lakes, everything is soggy. The rain (mostly) ended though getting up on the ridgeline put me into the cloud and more moisture.
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I’m kind of over cleaning the mud off the bike (and me) after every ride. I’m ready for dust. Come on, it’s now past the middle of July!

After fatherly errands and duties around the house, I returned to the airport for a 5p flight for Valencia, hit the market (open until 9:30p), and then dinner at 9p. I slept in and lazed around until getting out at 1p on the road bike under a clear sky with a warm sun and temp up to 35C / 95F, which is quite the difference from yesterday’s 16 - 18C (<65F). Tried to focus on Z2 with any efforts above kept to sweetspot (there were some exceptions).




At some point, I’ll get my gravel bike here and explore the trails around the Parc Natural de la Serra (among other places around here, Ojos Negros Greenway is on my list).

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Sunday afternoon and the streets were virtually deserted on my return.

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Missed the morning group ride so went out later by myself. Finally a cooler day here with less humidity



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Met a mate in Deeping St James and cycled with them down to the New Old Barn cafe in Wadenhoe. I dare say the max was when the bike was sat outside the cafe but 55deg C (131 deg F) :fire:

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Took out the rocketship today, and while it was super windy and I couldn’t quite stay in position, still maintained quite a good speed throughout some of these segments.
Always good to take home a few crowns.


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Finally rode into the Sierra mountains, mostly following Interstate 80 up to Dutch Flat and then out Drum Power House Rd:

39 miles of rolling up and down in the heat:

Easy tempo climbing.

I’m the tall dude that doesn’t look like a climber :joy: Wore my DeathRide jersey in honor of yesterday’s cancelled ride due to fires, and in case I forgot how to climb :thinking:

theme song: Love Rollercoaster (original by Ohio Players or cover by Red Hot Chili Peppers)

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:joy:

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A bit of a TR outdoor workout this afternoon after a 4.3mi run this morning (with a total of 52’ of ascent!). The temperature was around 32C / 90F, so that was nice. At the end of the ride, Garmin said I was now 50% heat acclimated.

Clouds Rest + 4 is 4x(30s at 130%, 15s rest). I miscounted and thought I was done after the 3 set :sweat_smile:. There were some interruptions due to traffic but generally, I was able to do the workout as prescribed, well, except for the warm-up. The workout is set to roll right into the warm-up of five intervals but getting out the urban area prevented that.

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A convenient pause after the first of four sets when traffic slowed.


I’m toast and on an overpass after all 4 sets and looking toward the urban area of Valencia, Spain.

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This is the main “hill” on the outbound. The other “hills” are overpasses. On the return, I “tunnel” under this climbing apparatus (there’s an mtb descending the thing).

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A brief tuck into the bike path on the return and just entering the urban area. I’m waiting for the green to get back into traffic on the left. There’s a sign ahead giving the temp as 33C.

It’s nearly 9p which means it’s nearly time for dinner. The schedule is a bit different here than back in Switzerland (or the US for that matter).

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MTB ride with a friend, found a bunny just hanging out at the park, looked like it ran from someone’s home so his girlfriend came and adopted it :heart:


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awww a little bun bun… try as I might I can’t get pics of the western jackrabbit to post here so a little Wikipedia for ya:

Can’t get closer than 100 yards before they are running at top speed across the fields!

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